A Puppy Died After A Flight Attendant Put it in the Overhead Bin
Meg Butler March 14, 2018
On Monday night, a 10-month-old French Bulldog puppy died on a United Airlines flight #1284 after a flight attendant forced the dog to spend a three-hour flight from Houston to New York in the overhead bin.
I want to help this woman and her daughter. They lost their dog because of an @united flight attendant. My heart is broken. pic.twitter.com/mjXYAhxsAq
— MaggieGremminger (@MaggieGrem) March 13, 2018
Maggie Gremminger, a passenger on the flight, released this account of the events:
I was in seat 24A, the woman (mother) was 23C, with her young teenage daughter in seat 23B. The mother had a young daughter and a newborn.
I was sitting in the row behind the woman with the dog, and the gentleman next to me witnessed it all as well. We both overheard/saw the interaction between the flight attendant and the passenger.
I witnessed a United flight attendant instruct a woman to put her dog carrier with live dog in an overhead bin. The passenger adamantly pushed back, sharing verbally that her dog was in the bag. The flight attendant continued to ask the passenger to do it, and she eventually complied. By the end of the flight, the dog was dead. The woman was crying in the airplane aisle on the floor. A fellow passenger offered to hold the newborn while the mother was crying on the floor aisle with the dog. it was this out of body experience of grief.
But holy **** I don’t know how the hell this happened. The flight attendant wouldn’t even NEED to hear there was a dog in the carrier. She was right there looking at the TSA approved bag. (The dog carrier is the black on the ground in the photo. It is clearly a carrier with mesh, which makes me question how the flight attendant could say she didn’t know there was a dog)
I feel angry and powerless and regretful. I know clearly this was not an intent of anyone and yet that flight attendant is responsible for this. How were we to know that maybe there wasn’t a new ventilation system in those bins? It’s not our job to know this information.
I understand emotional distress in a different way right now. I can’t get the image out of my head of the woman on the floor of the airplane aisle, crying and holding that sweet dog.
Immediately after the flight landed, myself and another witness stayed to speak with various United employees. The flight attendant denied knowing it was a dog, but the man seated next to me said he heard the flight attendant respond to the passenger “you need to put your dog up here” – therefore admitting that she knew an animal was in there. Additionally, I’ve been in touch with United via private message on Twitter.
They publicly replied asking me to message them – once private messaging them I shared my confirmation # and flight info. They replied:
“We appreciate you reaching out with more information. Please know that we are in contact with the passenger and thank you for bringing this to our attention.”
I also was offered $75 in credit (along with the gentleman witness) for staying and working with them to share our recollection of events. We both refused the credit.
United has released the following statement:
This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin. We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them. We are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again.
This is the second time the airline has been in recent news because of the fate of an animal on one of their flights. Last year, a dog died while being shipped via their PetSafe cargo service.
For more on this story, go to CNN.com.
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Such absurd reactions to a sensationalist 'article' that leaves out many of the relevant facts, i.e. barking (every flight I've ever been on any such noise would raise lots of complaints), owner doesn't speak English (blatant exclusion of information critical to the situation). And then look at the rest of the supposed 'articles' by this author posted below the comments on this one. Obviously a United basher with little understanding of either the company or the industry. And to the comments about Delta, they are no better, no worse than UA or AA. On balance, these airlines handle hundreds of 'pets', thousands of flights, millions of passengers and even more bags every day. With thousands of employees, mistakes will happen and that is not desirable, but certainly understandable. To constantly and blindly rant about 'management' and 'attitude' with little to no balance or basis in fact is offensive and such and author should be relegated to the grocery stand rags where she belongs. And yes, I'm going to say it; pets do NOT belong on airplanes except in especially exceptional circumstances. The whole pets/emotional support/service animal issue on airplanes is completely out of hand and abusive to the vast majority of passengers. I for one laud the airlines, including Delta who started the whole movement, for their renewed stricture and enforcement against the all too common abusers of the emotional support/service animal policies of the FAA. Cold hearted? Definitely not, I have pets of my own and have seen and felt the anguish of my family when we have lost pets (both dogs and cats) to death. It is a part of life, but travel on an airplane is not a right. Rather it is a privilege for which we pay, and abusing fellow passengers by bringing along a pet is classless and disrespectful. Do you take your pets to dinner when your friends invite you to their home? Surely not, so what makes it acceptable to impose on total strangers with your pet in the air. Show some decency and consideration, leave your 'pets' at home or don't fly. I can see the flaming coming already, so be it.
my Gosh! this is so...unbelievable! i just would like to know what the airline will do with this flight attendant! she deserves to be fired, and a lawsuit! i hope the animal protection rights help this family! NEVER WILL FLY WITH UNITED AIRLINE AGAIN!!!!NEVER!
and how stupid are you as a pet owner to not check on your pet ONCE during a 4 hr flight?!?!?!? I'd say this is 50% on united and 50% on the owner.
Why is there no link the article with the current FT discussion? https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/1898609-dog-dies-iah-lga-after-fa-supposedly-insisted-pax-store-dog-overhead.html
I have traveled on business almost weekly for the past 20 years. Living in Denver, UAL is the most convenient carrier. When I first started traveling, my colleagues warned me about the horrible attitude of all customer facing UAL employees. After continually being insulted for the first three years, I swore I would never fly UAL again - and have never done so since 2002. I am now a 3 million mile DELTA Diamond flyer and generally fly DELTA over 200 K miles per year. Yes, i have to make connections on nearly all my trips, but my experience with DELTA is absolutely stellar. You couldn't find a more well trained, customer-is-always-right staff at ANY US company. This incident only reinforces the fact that United has a toxic, poisonous culture, that will NEVER be rectified